Industrial growth revised to 6.6

On May 18, the Industry Ministry had said India8217;s industrial output, calculated on the old index, had grown by 4.2 in 1997-98 compared with 7.1 in 1996-97. quot;The change that we have done is that for the first time we have trapped the contribution of the unorganised sector,quot; M S Maulik, head of the Industrial Statistics Division, told a news conference.

quot;We are constantly trying to improve the quality ofthe data,quot; he added. The statement said growth of industrial production for the mining, manufacturing and electricity sectors had been revised to 5.6, 6.6 and 6.9 respectively in 1997-98.

The growth figures under the old index, adjusted to the new base year, for the three sectors in 1997-98 were: mining 4.9, manufacturing 3.6 and electricity 6.8.